Dang farmers send memorandum to Chief Minister seeking compensation for crop loss

According to a report by TV9 Gujarati, farmers of Dang district, under the leadership of the Bahujan Samaj Party, have sent a memorandum to the Chief Minister demanding compensation for crop loss. Due to inadequate rainfall this year, severe water shortages have emerged in several districts, leaving the condition of farmers and cattle rearers extremely dire. Cattle rearers lack water to feed their livestock, while farmers have no water sources available to irrigate their crops. In this situation, crops sown with expensive seeds and hard labour are withering due to lack of water.

Taking this serious situation into account, the farmers of Dang district held a protest on 26 October under the leadership of the Bahujan Samaj Party to save the Mahamula crops drying up without water and submitted a memorandum to the Collector. However, as no written response to that memorandum has been received to date, the farmers have now sent another memorandum to the Chief Minister as a reminder.

The memorandum demands that the government conduct a survey of crop loss and declare Dang district as drought-hit or damage-hit, as requested by farmers from 311 villages in Dang district. The primary demand of the farmers is that they be provided appropriate compensation according to the extent of loss per hectare. Along with this, a demand has also been made for a written response regarding what action the government has taken on the previous memorandum submitted to the Collector. The farmers have warned that if appropriate compensation is not provided by the government, they will go on a hunger strike.

On the other hand, according to a report by The Hindu, Karnataka is also facing a severe drought situation. The Karnataka government has requested the Central government to increase its drought relief proposal from ₹20,585.73 crore to ₹22,400.58 crore. This increase of ₹1,818 crore is due to changes made to the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) rules by the Ministry of Home Affairs on 26 October 2026.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and Revenue Minister G. Parameshwara has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, and Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan seeking a meeting. He stated that 226 talukas have been affected by the drought and crops in an area of more than 57.93 lakh hectares have suffered major damage, resulting in an estimated loss of ₹62,481.88 crore. This crisis has placed millions of farmer families in financial distress.

As per the new SDRF rules, the requirement for crop loss input subsidy has increased from ₹6,128.70 crore to ₹7,943.554 crore, an increase of ₹1,814.85 crore. G. Parameshwara stated that despite these amendments, the assistance of ₹11,000 for rain-fed crops, ₹22,000 for irrigated crops, and ₹30,000 for perennial crops per hectare is still insufficient. He raised questions against the Central government's reliance on the 2015-2016 Agriculture and Census data and requested the use of Karnataka's 'FRUITS' database instead.